As authorities continue to investigate the death of former longtime Bay Area broadcaster Ray Taliaferro, his son has hired a private investigator to gather more information about the case and his father’s widow.

Raphael Taliaferro Jr. said he wants to know how his father ended up dead in a wooded area of Paducah, Kentucky weeks after he was reported missing in nearby Massac County, Illinois, and how local authorities handled the investigation.

His private eye is trying to obtain surveillance video from the area where his father’s body was found and is digging up some information about Charlotte Crawford, the woman Taliaferro married in June and was with in Southern Illinois when he went missing.

“I just wanted him to run a full background check on her, see exactly where she’s from, talk to people that she knows….and see what type of person she is,” Taliaferro Jr. said in an interview. He said he only learned about Taliaferro and Crawford’s marriage when contacted by law enforcement regarding Taliaferro’s disappearance.

Crawford and Taliaferro, 79, were visiting the town of Brookport, Illinois, on Nov. 10 to check out a property she had inherited. Just before they were set to leave the property together in a rental car, Crawford went to check on a window at the rear of the home.

Authorities said she told investigators that when she returned to the front of the home, the car and Taliaferro were gone.

Taliaferro Jr. said he believes his father was suffering from dementia, and Crawford taking him to a place he was unfamiliar with could have “disoriented and agitated” him and “sent him into an episode” that made him leave her and become lost.

Taliaferro Jr. said friends, colleagues and acquaintances of his father told him Taliaferro had been showing obvious signs of dementia over the past several years.

It’s unclear whether Taliaferro was ever diagnosed with a memory disorder. Authorities in Kentucky would not share details of the active death investigation, including whether an autopsy performed on his body revealed signs of dementia.

“We’re waiting on final reports from the medical examiner’s office and we could be waiting a few more weeks,” Paducah assistant police chief Brian Laird said Monday.

Paducah police said in a previous press release that initial autopsy results indicate foul play did not appear to be a factor in Taliaferro’s death, but “exposure to the elements” may have been.

McCracken County Coroner Dan Sims and investigators from his office have not returned several calls from this news organization seeking further information about the autopsy and investigation.

Later in the afternoon of the Nov. 10 day he was reported missing, Taliaferro was seen in Paducah, which is just a short drive across the Ohio River from Brookport, Illinois.

He spoke with employees of local businesses and restaurants in Paducah, according to authorities. Some of those people said in interviews with this news organization they were concerned about Taliaferro’s mental state because he repeatedly introduced himself and seemed forgetful.

On Nov. 16, authorities found the rental car he and his wife had been using after employees of the bank Taliaferro had visited on Nov. 10 noticed it parked outside the next week and called police. Investigators found Taliaferro’s cell phone in the car.

His body was found by two teenagers near a local sports stadium on Dec. 2, about a mile from where he was last seen.

Crawford did not directly return calls and a text message seeking comment for this story, but through a spokesperson she gave a statement.

“We are all so saddened at the loss of my beloved Ray and hope that all his friends and family can come together to honor the man and the legacy of a great pioneer,” the statement says.

Taliaferro Jr. said his family will hold a memorial service for his father at The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco on Jan. 12 at 11 a.m. Crawford’s spokesperson said she is also planning a memorial in San Francisco for sometime after the holidays.

Joseph Geha is a multimedia journalist covering Fremont, Newark, and Union City for the Bay Area News Group, and is based at The Argus. His prior work has been seen in multiple Bay Area news outlets, including SF Weekly, as well as on KQED and KLIV radio. He is a graduate of California State University, East Bay (Hayward), and is a Fremont native. He is a lifelong Oakland Athletics fan.

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